Machine foe



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN H. THOMPSON, JAMES M. THOMPSON, AND HOSEA Q. THOMPSON, OF HOLDERNESS, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

MACHINE FOR TRIMMING SOLES OF BOOTS AND SHOES.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 10,239, dated November 15, 1853.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that we, JOHN H. THOMP- SON, JAMES' M. THOMPSON, and HOSEA Q. THOMPSON, all of Holderness, in the county of Grafton and State of New Hampshire, have invented a new and useful Machine for Trimming the Soles of Boots and Shoes, and that the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, hereinafter referred to, forms a full and exact specification of the same, wherein we have set forth the nature and principles of our said invention by which it may be distinguished from others of a similar class, together with such parts as we claim and desire to have. Secured to us by Letters Patent.

The gures of the accompanying plate of drawings represent our new machine.

Figure l is a plan of the same. Fig. 2 is a transverse vertical section taken in the plane of the line A B, Fig. l.

The operation of trimming or cutting the edge of the Sole of a boot or shoe has hitherto been done by hand, and has to be executed with so much skill and caution, in order to trim the edge evenly, as to require a considerable portion of the workmans time.

By our new machine the edge of the sole is cut or trimmed in the most regular and even manner, and with great rapidity, the sole being fed along by hand to revolving knives, and kept at the proper distance from the same, so as to trim the edge evenly, by a gage, as will be hereinafter explained.

a ce a a represent the framework of the machine,which may be constructed as shown in the drawings or in any other desirable way.

Z) b is the platform on the edge of which the sole c c rests when fed in by hand.

d, al are the knives set in the revolving knife-stock e e. A rotary motion is given to this knife-stock, and consequently to the knives, by a band running on the drum f, placed on the vertical shaft g g, to which the knife-stock is attached. The pattern plate 7L 7L is first fastened to the sole, which is then fed in, as shownin Figs. l and 2, the proper distance, till the edge of the pattern plate abuts against the projection z' of the gage bar 7c 7c. This gage b'ar is raised when the Sole is slipped under by a foot treadle Z and connecting rod ym, and is held down upon the sole by a spring n n, so as to press upon any thickness of leather, being guided in it-s vertical movement by a guide bar 0 0. The knives (l, CZ are inclined at the proper angle, so as to give the requisite degree of bevel to the edge of the sole.

It will be seen by the above described arrangement, that as the gage bar abuts against the edge of the pattern plate, the scle will be guided thereby, and that consequently the revolving knives will cut the edge of the sole, as it is fed along by the operator, on exactly the same curves as those of the pat-tern plate, and in a much more expeditious and accurate manner than by hand.

Having thus described our new machine we shall state our claim as follows:

That we claim as our invention and desire to have secured to us by Letters Patent A machine in which the sole is trimmed by revolving knives and guided, as fed along by the operator, by an adjustable gage bar, against which the edge of the pattern plate abuts, substantially as herein above described.

JOHN H. THOMPSON. JAMES M. THOMPSON. HOSEA Q. THOMPSON.

Witnesses:

FRANKLIN SGRIBNER, JOSEPH BURRowS. 

